Social really is here when it comes to the enterprise. Many see the role of social in consumer-focused businesses but have not absorbed what it means for the enterprise. Social is having a direct impact in 5 areas:
1. DIY prospecting: Customers conduct research on products and services well ahead of the official start to the sales cycle
2. Peer influence: Customers “pulse” their peers at every step of the journey
3. Trial before purchase: User testing requires grassroot support. It’s no longer a single decision instance rather smaller purchase bundles
4. Buyer & user are the same: The phenomenon changes decision and influence points in enterprise purchasing
5. Click to compare: Pricing transparency is foundational; consumer expectations are shaping enterprise behavior

My point of view: a social enterprise is not an enterprise that uses social media. It is about creating mutual value

Dreamforce and Social Enterprise RealitiesInformation Management (blog)What is Happening? To no one’s surprise, this year’s Dreamforce – the annual Salesforce.com conference/event/customer festival – is all about enterprise and social business.

Celebrated scientists and development thinkers today warn that civilization is faced with a perfect storm of ecological and social problems driven by overpopulation, overconsumption, and environmentally malign technologies.

Chances are you’ve experimented with all sorts of social technologies. You’ve got wikis, blogs and team collaboration sites. You may even have a public customer community. And now every legacy tool vendor under the sun is adding social bling to their software.

It might be tempting to try to stitch all of these things together to create a Social Business platform.

Don’t.

You’ll end up with a monster. A Social Frankenstein.

You’ll end up with something that has all the right parts, but lacks soul. That spells certain death to your Social Business strategy.

Done right, Social Business will become the soul of your company. It will change the way you engage your employees, customers and partners.

At Jive, we’ve found that customers are most successful when they implement a cohesive Social Business strategy based on a couple key principles: